Black, Mixed-Race Students Stage Boycotts, Protests in South Africa

Thousands of black and mixed-race students on Friday staged boycotts and demonstrations near Johannesburg and Cape Town to protest the detention of a teacher and the alleged harassment of students in South Africa’s racially segregated education system, officials and eyewitnesses said.

All eight high schools in Tembisa township, northeast of Johannesburg, were boycotted for a second straight day, James McNeil, spokesman for the Department of Education. Boycotts also were reported at four high schools in Soweto, the sprawling black township outside Johannesburg.

The boycotts were staged to protest the detention of an English teacher at Tembisa High School, Themba Mohambi, who was arrested Monday and released Thursday, officials said.

No official reasons for his detention were given, but one newspaper report said that it was believed to be related to Mohambi’s involvement in anti-apartheid political activity.

Meanwhile, about 30 mixed-race students held a demonstration in Athlone township outside Cape Town Friday morning to protest South Africa’s racially segregated education system, eyewitnesses said.

The demonstration was the latest in a series of protests and boycotts in the Cape Town area over the past two weeks by up to 70,000 students in one of the most extensive outbreaks of political unrest in the schools since a nationwide classroom boycott ended in 1986.